The world in Flames, A prelude to Avalon in Azeroth
by vossrothgar
Summary: In the shadows of the world dark forces are on the move. Events set in motion that will shape the future of two worlds. In the face of coming war, in shadows and flame lives lived and snuffed out. Against the might of the Burning Legion, who will fall? Who will live to bear witness as the world burns.
1. A small spark

Foreword: So after spending some time really looking at what I've stuck out there, I realized that I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself. I was so eager to get into the Potter awesomeness, that I didn't really have a finished product. Overall i'm not thrilled by what I got out. It comes off as a beat over the head info dump, with some action thrown in. I can do better, and you folks deserve it.

So i'm taking a step back and looking at this from a new angle. Those two chapters already out, will be worked in...but in a hopefully a much better format. Let me know what you think. Here's the start hope you continue to enjoy. -VR

After all, it wasn't as if Necromancy was legal….

A shabby man pondered that thought, as he shifted and rolled his thinning frame, trying to get comfortable on a wood pallet covered in tarps. He was currently hiding in the dank hold of the Midnight Queen as steamed along on her way to Europe. His name was Tobias Yendell, practitioner of magic by birth; he fled his homeland of America two steps ahead of magical law enforcement. They sought him in connection with evidence of someone working dark magical acts in local graveyards in the neighboring communities surrounding his home in Rochester, Pennsylvania. As the local wizard "dead-head" he was high on the suspect list.

As he rubbed his hands up and down his arms huddling underneath his robes, he snorted in remembrance of how naive he was. When the agents of the American Assembly of Wizards came to speak with him, first he cooperated with, and then even offered his assistance to try help and aid the investigation. At the time, he had nothing to hide, Death Magic, often lumped into the category of "Dark Arts" by European practitioners weren't forbidden in the Americas. Too many voodoo witch doctors and native spirit shamans called the pair of continents home to ever get that put into law.

Those practicing more main stream focus based magic only had limited success with "Spirit Magic" as those who studied it preferred to call it. Relying heavily on group ritualized workings, only suitable for very specific locations and times to be effective made it a fickle discipline. The generally high failure rates of workings, tied with the very specific requirements made a lone scholar of the arts living in a non magical or "Muggle" community a rather low risk.

Though not illegal per say, a school being composed of generally grey or black magic, and having many reasons to tempt people into using them, it was a watched with a critical eye. Especially with its brushes at breaking the self imposed separation from the non magical world at large. Apparently the séance craze of the last century wasn't completely based on hoaxes.

While the sandy haired, thirty four year old, Pennsylvania native tried to be accommodating to the agents as possible in their case, the half finished zombie like constructs found poorly hidden in vandalized crypts, shifted the dynamic of their interactions. He found himself watched; catching glimpses of plain clothes agents taking note of his movements. Despite their assurances that he had been cleared of suspicion, he began to feel less trusting on the matter.

The final straw broke when returning home one night, Tobias detected evidence someone had forcibly entered his abode. Either a frustrated agent trying to create a lead, or the actual perpetrator trying to cover his tracks, it was clear someone was trying to set him up. The rare and highly restricted texts, ritual inscriptions scrawled along the floor and walls, and the gallon of blood under preservation charms to stay fresh lent good support to either assumption. Tobias doubted that his next "chat" with AAW agents was going to end well.

Hastily packing what few belongings he could think to take with him, he fled into the night. This sudden flight, taken with the "evidence" whipped up fervor in the AAW much akin to the baying of hounds in the hunt and lead to a country wide manhunt for the rising "dark warlock". The fear of an actual Necromancer on the loose generated such a panic that no stone would be left upturned until the dark wizard was found and drug out to burn in the light.

For weeks, Tobias managed to evade pursuers but had to keep on the move. The Assembly managed to get the mundane government to hunt for him under the pretense that he was a child predator, which considering some of the crypt bodies were of young adults, wasn't a complete falsehood. Denied safe harbor even "going muggle", Yendell eventually managed to sneak aboard the cargo vessel due to travel to Southampton, England.

Passing the trip stealing food, and when discovered using a "confounding curse", a spell that would disorient and cause temporary memory loss to make sure the crew didn't notice him. Laying low, he had many hours to ponder his situation. What were the odds that someone would have shown up near his home and begun to work on inferni? It was one of the banned disciplines, true Necromancy raising the dead to act as a thrall, frankly the concept made Tobias' skin crawl.

Thinking about it he paused, while creepy the critical thing is that it's not simple process, requiring as he understood it, great skill to even get to the point the failed attempts had reached. Racking his brain trying to remember the little bit he'd read about the process, he couldn't recall a reason one would need to get rid of the bodies. Even part of the failed attempt, unless they were destroyed, they could be reused it wasn't like the bodies were going to get even deader. So why discard them to be so easily found?

While never a particularly strong or intelligent wizard, he was far from stupid. Believing in the system he dutifully kept his head down and followed the rules set out by the AAW. As required when he found his interested peaked, he'd registered himself as a scholar or the spirit arts, so that he could study them without drawing ire, but the AAW did keep an eye on what he was doing and likely knew he had nowhere near the skills to pull this working off.

His thoughts came to crashing halt when realization struck him; he'd been set up as bait. Someone with influence had managed to cast suspicion on him. The bodies were just to sell it to the skeptical, someone who was a true dark warlock, a Necromancer in every meaning of the term, managed to successfully turn the government's focus into a wild goose chase, hunting him down, probably to draw attention away from themselves.

Somebody, because they wanted to delve into an art that was so horrible it was banned worldwide, had ruined his life. It was worse than that, Necromancy was illegal, being found practicing would result in being sentenced to death, generally in as most painful way possible. The concept that someone had just callously decided to send him to his death, because it was convenient for them roared through his mind. Rage, almost indefinable sparked in the pit of his stomach. He'd never hurt anyone, he'd played by the rules all his life, and yet still someone had the gall to try and sacrifice him like a pawn.

Hiding in that rat infested cargo hold, something broke inside Tobias Yendall, and the world was going to burn because of it…..


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: Apologies for making folks wait forever for and update, but this has taken on a life of its own. When I started I had intended to only put out a filler chapter or two and then jump into my crossover in actual Azeroth. However as I started world building it took on a life of its own, here is the first ready result of that new growth, part two is stewing while I check it for grammer, _

_Enjoy _

_~VR_

_An excerpt from the _**"The Rise and fall of the Dark Arts of the 18th Century"**:

_Appendix A: Dark Artifacts:_

_Enchanted or "spelled" objects have been a part the magical world since the first applications of magic. Like any other tool, they can be used for good or ill, many times it isn't known which until they are used. _

_The Von Erbe Tomes:_

_In the early 1700's a wizard descendent of the famous Johannes Gutenberg lived in Rhine valley of what is now modern day Germany. Unlike many who've been labeled as such he wasn't so much a "Dark Lord" as what some muggleborns would call a "Mad Scientist". _

_Little is known about the early life of this Gutenberg descendent. Historians cannot even agree on what his name is, or if he was actually related to Johannes Gutenberg at all. What is commonly accepted as fact in most circles is that he was probably born sometime in late 1680's and lived in Germany for almost his entire life. _

_What is known for fact is that he was completely devoted to following in his supposed ancestor's footsteps; to fanatical point of forsaking his own name and only allowing himself to be called Erbe Von Gutenberg._

_With surviving tomes are all held in secure research departments of various ministries, little is known about the methods of construction aside from what can be derived from what few features were advertised in sales pamphlets. _

_Utilizing a new method he either invented or stole, he created magical books that included features such as: embossed runes on the paper, magical inks, and complex finishing enchantments. _

_An important note is that the original intent of these enhanced books would also affect the reader's mind allowing for improved focus to read the book with minimal distraction. As well warnings from unclassified reports indicate some sort of compulsion on the book that makes people want to read them. As such they are considered a class three dark artifact due to the ability for them to affect the conscious mind. _

_**Dark Artifact Control and Regulation #56-7JB:**_

_Per Ministry decree on dark artifact possession, any such books must be reported to the DMLE immediately for containment and disposal. Failure to do so will result in a ten year minimum sentence to Azkaban. _

_What the overall effect of these features were is likely never to be fully understood, but scattered accounts from the period seem to indicate that the books' enscrolled magic would allow the reader to quickly retain the knowledge written within. _

_Further innovations included writing the books in wholly new magical language, and some sort of permanent translation charm, allowing almost anyone to read the book regardless of native language. _

_Also taken from pamphlets advertising his books, it is known that Erbe's professed intent was in the spirit of his forefather to bring knowledge to the masses, thus beginning a second age of enlightenment. _

_Where he came to the opinion that Johannes Gutenberg had actually planned to try and bring about the age of enlightenment is a mystery to historians. _

_His pamphlets profess Ebre Von Guttenburg's belief that the leaders of various magical societies of the world were keeping the general masses ignorant for their own personal and political gains. He claimed that the witch hunts which had been commonplace in Germany for over a century were the direct result of this enforced ignorance. _

_Only through fully educating the average witch or wizard could the magical society hope to survive the "Holy Menace" as he referred to the witch hunters of both the Protestant and Catholic churches. His message proved to be popular to many and he started to receive support and letters from witches and wizards throughout Central Europe. _

_In addition to his artificer skills Erbe apparently had a gift for correspondence. By early 1716 he had amassed a sizable following and established a network of cultivated contacts for information sources of like minded individuals throughout European magical ministries._

_With those resources Gutenberg was able to create what he dubbed the "Master Series" that would allow anyone to finish their education and gain a well rounded and full magical knowledge base outside of ministry restriction. When completed the entire series was believed to be comprised of nearly forty volumes of restricted lore. _

_Sadly the series focused almost solely on the restricted magics that were not taught in any school throughout Europe. Hence the chosen subject matter of his ill fated quest were various dark and dangerous schools of magic, his delusional mind somehow believed that the knowledge of these arts were being kept from people to be horded by only a few. The truth was much less malevolent; those in authority were trying to protect people from spells and rituals that were extremely dangerous. _

_Apparently the idea that this magic could be used for nothing good never crossed his damaged mind. _

_The books themselves apparently proved successful, although while they transferred knowledge to anyone who read them, they didn't transfer wisdom on how or when to use the skills imparted. The violence and destruction wrought by these recipients is well documented in various ministry sources. _

_In response to the chaos and violence, the ministries throughout Europe banned possession of Master series and attempted to destroy the books. _

_Incensed someone was trying to edit his genius, Gutenberg began to incorporate a glamour enchantment that would create false titles for the books allowing them to slip by inspection. Once read the author of "Erbe Von" would appear to allow the 'enlightened' to pass the books on to others. An underground trade started in circulating these glamoured books, working to keep them out of the hands of the ministry. _

_Thus sometime around 1723, as the "Von Erbe" books began to appear throughout central Europe, it marked the beginning of the Rhine Wizarding Wars….. _

**Cargo Hold, Midnight Queen, North Atlantic July 28****th**** 1978**

Three weeks….

In keeping with his luck, a surprisingly strong typhoon had struck a path through the north at Atlantic in late July, forcing the cargo vessel to chart a circuitous route around the northern reaches of Iceland to avoid being caught in the worst of the storm's track. Even then the crew of the Midnight Queen was forced to slow their speed to bleed off time for the storm cell to spend itself out. Because of this evasive course it had taken just over three weeks for the Midnight Queen to make the trip to Southampton, England. During that detour Tobias Yendall had plenty of time on his hands.

It wasn't until the third day of the trans-Atlantic journey that he'd calmed enough to allow for his introspection about being a pawn in someone else's scheme; at first he was simply stunned.

It seemed almost inconceivable to a mild mannered person like Tobias, that someone could be so callous or evil. A further two days for the rationalizations and recriminations of his own actions to come to a head and in a fit of frustrated rage Tobias had vented out in the best way he could think of, he started screaming at the top of his lungs.

The sound was neither mighty nor awe inspiring but it was emotional, Tobias poured his anger, frustration and pain into those rage infused bellows. Finally having shouted his throat raw and given himself a headache he stopped leaving the sound to die out, his voice echoed through the tilting hold slowly dying out till only he his deep ragged breathing remained.

The new semi-silence was short lived, his pulse that had been slowing shot up again as he heard the footfalls and yells of others. The realization that he had attracted the attention of the crew quickly doused his rage, the fear of discovery poured over him like a bucket of cold water.

With a shaky wand in hand, he ducked down behind his "bed", a few tarps laid on an empty wood pallet across a couple of loose shipping barrels, hidden between two rows of cargo containers. Swallowing the sickening sensation in his stomach, he hunkered down facing the end of the passage the noise was coming from and waited as the foot falls and questioning shouts came closer.

As two men dressed in blue work coveralls came running around the corner he managed to hit the first with a tripping jinx, causing him to falter falling face first into the metal container across the path with a loud dull bang. The second slowed and not having seen the spell and went to look at his companion. Tobias tried to take deep slow breaths, to avoid a full on panic attack. Adrenalin had flooded his system when he heard the men coming, focusing his mind but causing him to hyperventilate and his hands to shake.

While the sailor was bent over looking the one who tripped, who sitting on the ground holding his head and moaning in pain, Tobias leaned out and took aim with his wand. With his hand shaking with a poorly controlled grip on his wand, he acted, a shout of "_stupefy!_" a stunning spell went wide over the crouched sailors back. The small flash of red light and the impact on the cargo container was enough to draw both of their attention towards Tobias. Gripping the wrist of his wand hand with his left to steady it, he shouted out another spell, hitting the second sailor as he stood up. He dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, much to the shock of the first man on the ground. Wildly looking around he just barely caught the third red pulse as it struck him in the chest.

Tobias' wand slipped from his fingers in relief when the sitting seaman slumped over against the wall of containers. His hands were still shaking and a wave of exhaustion washed over him, he fell forward bracing himself on his hands and knees with his shaking arms as the hormone boost bled out of his system. The queasy feeling surged back into his stomach causing his already collapsed stance to bend further over, while he emptied the meager contents of his stomach.

While not what an outside observer would have called, an epic fight for survival one must remember Tobias Yendall was a researcher by profession.

Logically he could imagine how it might have been to be in a life or death fight, but this was the closest he'd ever been to a real conflict. So the ambush and haphazard stunning of two muggle crewman had his body acting as if he'd just fought for his life. Straightening up to be standing on just his knees, he fell back to sitting on the cold metal floor, his limbs seeming to have lost their bones. For several minutes all he did was sit in a daze, rapidly breathing while he watched the unmoving figures across from him.

Eventually his body began to recover from the recent rush, his hands stilled and some strength seeming to have returned. He picked up his discarded wand, and unsteadily stood up making his way to the unconscious men.

The two sailors obviously worked with machines, given their oil spotted coveralls. The first one whom he'd tripped was a bear of a man, who would have easily eclipsed Tobias' narrow 5' 8" frame standing up. Not being an expert in such things, but judging by how he stretched his work clothes to their limit, he doubted in a physical fight that the man would have had much issue dealing with him at all. Blood flowed freely from a wound above his forhead just inside his short cropped hair; it had already covered his face and was staining the front of his shirt.

The second man, whom he'd stunned while standing looked to be nearer his own height with a dark complexion, his hair was longer a frizzy mess that was tied back in a ponytail and probably would have reached to his shoulders.

The wizard just stared at the blood for a moment, entranced. This man who would could have easily overcome him in a normal fight, and probably would have easily intimidated Yendall if they'd ever met had been so easily been toppled by him. He couldn't help emergence of the small giggle that escaped his lips as he looked on, to realize he had such power over men. For someone who'd spent the last several months suffering at the whims of others it was a heady feeling.

Savoring the moment, he came out of his revelry, his hands no longer shaking he took aim at the two machinists and set to work altering their recollection of the events. Tobias knew there were spells for altering memories, unfortunately he didn't have a clue how to go about it, those magics were restricted and not taught to wizards outside of law enforcement.

Knowing he lacked the ability to alter their memories he had to settle for, the spells that had served him so well aboard the ship thus far. So with a small prayer to some unknown higher power Tobias hit the par with several _Confundus__ charms. _

Crouching over the men he brought his wand to bare and quickly cast the charm several times before hitting them with a Renervate or recovery spell to counteract the stunning. Hoping perhaps that repetition plus the mind fogging effect of being woken from a stunner, would help increase the effect on their minds.

A few softly spoken suggestions and the confused charmed minds of the sailors would hopefully quickly forget they were investigating a man screaming and likely blame the bigger one's injury on some sort of accident. Not completely unbelievable as he had tripped after all and likely had the cut and bruises to prove it.

Once finished, focusing on the task had calmed his mind to a degree; he was able to take in his current status. Obviously his "bunk" was no longer a safe place to be. Even with the altered suggestions, he knew there would be questions why they were in that part of the hold in the first place. Someone would come looking, maybe someone he wouldn't be so lucky to get the drop on.

Decision made and with the practiced ease of someone who's spent months on the run, he quickly stood up and headed back to his pallet, scanning the area for any of his possessions. Not finding anything laying around the area he quietly picked up his trunk by its carry handle and fled down the small open passage way between container stacks, towards the bow of the ship and away from where the disabled men had come from.

After meandering for several minutes, walking slowly in the weak light his wand was able to put off, pausing occasionally to listen for any sounds of activity, he found another small niche to hide. This time the containers aligned on three sides of what must be a corner of the cargo bay section, the effect created a small nook area that only had on entrance to worry about.

Being a longer distance from inhabited sections would be inconvenient, and it also seemed to lack the overhead light of his last spot but the odds of being discovered were low.

Placing his trunk down, he hunkered down. As he waited to cautiously listen for signs of discovery or pursuit, his mind drift back over the encounter. He couldn't help but think to the ease at which he had handled those muggle sailors; he shook his head reufully, 'these are the muggles we're hiding from? '

The more he thought over the encounter the more he almost wanted to laugh about it, it was so simple to take them down, and they didn't stand a chance. Still he remembered how large the bleeding muggle was, and a sliver of honesty shot through his thoughts about how easily that man could have hurt him. The reminder of the fear made his empty stomach clench.

Not liking reminder, he cast out for something to draw his attention, a quick survey of his surroundings showed that a deep study of the corrugated metal was not going to be successful.

Deciding that pursuit wasn't forthcoming he decided to try a more studious approach, with a sigh he adjusted his travel trunk. He sat his trunk down in one corner of his new hiding spot, the wood was a bit scratched and the brass bands that fitted on the corners were dull with tarnished age. It didn't appear to be that much at first, standing at small one foot square and two feet long.

He knew he'd packed in a hurry, and honestly over the weeks of fleeing from one hiding spot to another, he'd never felt safe enough to really take a deep look into what his spell work assisted packing had yielded. A smell of stale sweat and human grime that had wafted by his nose reminded him that he'd not bathed since having snuck aboard the ship, and at the very least he knew there was at least a clean change of clothes inside.

With that thought in mind he reset the pine framed and green canvas box up on end in the corner, with the carrying handle facing him and depressed the button next to the handle. The light colored pine wood and brass fittings expanded out of the corner until it covered a three foot square area, standing six feet tall. A series of latches ran up the middle of the side facing him, with an elaborate looking lock in the middle, waist high.

Harkening out of a different era, it was a large wardrobe trunk the looks of which wouldn't have been out of place on the Victorian era holiday trip. Unlike the smaller multi-compartment steamer trunks, that had started to become popular in the last fifty years, the Wizard's Outrigger Travel Wardrobe had been a mainstay of magical people on holiday during the last century.

Although widely used today, the mulit-compartment mechanism and stable space expansions that could be charmed "feather light" weren't invented until the turn of the century. Before then any sort of spell cast on an already enchanted trunk would render such enchantments unstable, and thus likely to unravel….explosively.

Instead, the Outrigger relied on an unaltered large internal volume to store its contents, just like its non magical equivalent. In an untouched magical state, it was able possible weave spells into the outside of the trunk allowing for durability, weight and size reduction down to easily handled suitcase sized travel mode. A trunk this size still allowed a large volume that would be capable of carrying the clothing and other possessions needed for a wizard traveling for months on end.

As Tobias flipped the series of latches on the front and opened the trunk the magical lighting built into the top of both sides of the trunk bathed the niche in a soft yellow light. Quickly canceling his light, and putting his wand away, he took several minutes to completely survey the contents of his trunk. Despite not having much time to pack before his flight from Rochester, he apparently had managed to place a large amount of things and hurriedly stash them into his trunk before fleeing, far more than he would have normally thought possible.

In small corner of his shocked mind his scholarly habits made a note, packing spells apparently work better when panicked.

The left or "lid" side of the trunk contained a wide assortment of clothing articles, stored in what could pass for an almost full sized closet, he knew, most of that he had failed to unpack after his last trip to Salem in June. What had caused his surprise was as he surveyed the right hand side. Ignoring the four drawers set into the bottom two thirds of the case, he found his gaze drawn to the two one foot high book shelves.

While completely full of books, Tobias didn't recognize more than a handful of titles, and some of the titles he only knew due to their notorieties. He looked at them almost stupidly for several minutes reading over the titles and wondering where they came from. Then his mind snapped back to why he was on the ship in the first place, '_Of course, couldn't have the setup at home look right without making it look like I was still hiding the really dangerous things'_

Breaking his self recrimination before his anger overtook him again, he quickly looked down to the top drawer, inside he found soap and a small hand towel for cleaning. Shedding his soiled clothing as quickly as possible, Tobias found himself shivering in the cold of the cargo bay. While some of the newer traveling trunks had impressive built in facilities he'd have to make do. Brandishing his wand, and casting some warming charms on himself to offset the chill, he quickly set about an awkward mix of _Aquamenti_ or water conjuring charms, and lathering himself with soap.

After several more minutes of his awkward dance of washing and rinsing, even the warming charms had ceased to be effective against the chill. Teeth chattering, he quickly completed a final round of _Aquamenti's_ to rinse off before hitting himself with several warming charms to while doing his best to shake off the water. He was tempted to use a drying charm; however he recalled some vague warning about not trying to cast them on oneself. Cursing himself for not keeping up with his school spell work and considering his luck as of late, he decided to simply dress as quickly as he could, and not really worry about his change of clothing being a tad damp.

Hair wet and better smelling, he quickly dressed in tan wool pants, thick woolen socks, a blue button down shirt, and a thick dark green sweater. Years of living in a non magical town outside of Pittsburgh had been sufficient to cure him of the color blindness many wizards seemed to suffer from in regards to their wardrobe. Over top of that he draped a fur lined brown cloak, not the most fashionable of clothing articles these days, it was very effective in helping ward off the chill that seemed to have settled into his bones.

As he rubbed his arms slightly huddled under the cloak, he returned his attention to the books on his shelf, considering the likely subject matter it's easy to assume most of these books were printed many years ago, some of them appeared extremely old, though oddly they all seemed to be in English. Snorting to himself, '_supposed it wouldn't do to have them unable to tell what the books were about if any curious investigators wandered by_'.

The titles seemed to indicate that these books spanned a large variety of subjects, some going very in-depth in topics, others covering subjects he wasn't knowledgeable in but had wanted to read at one time or another. Looking down on the lower shelf a blue leather book with gold lettering caught his eye, "**Casting with Emotion: a discourse on effects of psychological components in spellwork**". That small corner of his mind still playing scholar quickly locked onto that and reminded him about his apparently, extra effective packing spell.

So properly distracted by the thought of new knowledge he pulled if from the shelf, arranging his dirty clothing into a makeshift seat he quickly sat down to begin reading what he thought was going to be a in-depth intellectual discussion. Sadly, Mr. Yendell had forgotten one of the key lesions taught to aspiring learned wizards, NEVER assume a book by its cover, especially if you don't know anything about it.

Had Tobias remembered that rule, he would have likely also questioned why all these obviously old tomes were not only in a language he could understand, but covering subjects he would be very interested in reading.

**AN post script:**

**I'm pretty sure I ripped the idea of enchanted books from some story I read on this site, but for the life of me I can't remember. Feel free to give credit to that guy and absoultuley not me, feel free to drop me a line and let me know who it was so I can lend credit where its due. I remember something about an evil Dumbledore and Ghostbusters...don't remember much else. **


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